It’s Thursday morning and I wake up knowing I am about to go for a 10 km run. I couldn’t head out until it was light out – I don’t enjoy running in the dark. This means I was definitely going to have to eat breakfast before my run – another thing I don’t enjoy because it makes me feel bloated and slow (and also makes me cramp when I run). So I devised a plan: I would get up at 5:30, drink my coffee and relax, then at 6/6:30 have breakfast so that when I went on my run at around 8/8:30 I would have digested the food enough that I wouldn’t feel gross while running.
When I was getting dressed for my run I had butterflies, I was nervous for the run. I have never attempted to run 10k. However, I have walked this same path on many occasions so I don’t know why I was so nervous. I shook off the nerves, got my dog ready and headed to the lake path. My dog was ecstatic, she knew we were going for a run and couldn’t wait to get going. Neither could I, I knew I could have her off leash for this run and that makes a HUGE difference. Instead of being nearly cut in half by the leash when she would stop for a sniff or a pee I would be able to keep running and she would catch up. So I was able to run the first 2/3 km without stopping, except to let other dogs on leashes pass/put my dog on a leash if any hesitant owners were passing. The next 7 km were a struggle though. I was tempted to turn around and head back m
ultiple times, but I was determined that I would run 10K and I would make it out alive.
Although I was determined to run it I ended up walking a couple portions of it. I wanted to walk because my hips/glutes and calves were getting sore. I did my best to power through the pain, coming from a background in soccer and basketball I am very familiar with how far I can push my body and what it is capable of. Although this exercise pushed the limits more than I had expected, I enjoyed it. It felt good getting out first thing and I have been feeling energized all day since the run. This will probably wear off and I WILL take a nap at some point and I most definitely will be sore tomorrow – but I would totally do it again!
Now lets look at the stats: I ran the entire 10.2 K loop in 70 minutes, although both trackers I was using did not say I ran that far. The values they had were 9.77k and 10k. This could be due to GPS errors as the path was shrouded in trees, or possibly the distance of the trail was off by .4 km which is not unheard of. Nonetheless my devices both said I ended up running a pace around 6:30 – 6:45 minutes per kilometer. Which I think is awesome! I can’t believe I managed to run 10km AND keep my time below 7min/km.
This week I am going to use the Zombies Run! app and try and run two more 5k runs to prepare for a finale of running one more 10k to see if I can improve in two weeks. I am also planning on looking into nutrition and the best way to fuel your body after doing intense and strenuous exercise.
Happy Running!